Saving vegetable seeds is a great way to save money on seeds, produce healthier and more resilient crops and be more self-sufficient. Not only is it an eco-friendly way to grow your own food, but it can also be a great way to involve children in gardening and teach them about the science of seed saving. Let’s go over which vegetable seeds are best to save, how to do it, and how to store them.
Selecting Plants
Quality
Choose your strongest and most productive plants to collect seeds from, as the desirable traits of the plants will be inherited by their offspring. However, it’s important to note that any negative qualities of the parent plant may also be passed down to future generations through the seeds. For instance, if a plant was affected by a disease, there is a possibility that the disease may be transmitted to the next generation of seeds.
Good Candidates
Open-pollinated vegetables are a great option for seed saving. Some of these include beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. These plants are self-pollinating, which means that the pollen from the male and female flowers comes into contact without the help of insects or wind. This makes it easier to ensure that the seeds produced will be true to the parent plant.
Less Desirable Candidates
Saving seeds from cross-pollinated crops like corn, squash, and cucumbers may not be ideal. The resulting plants the following year may not resemble the parent plant due to potential pollination by another variety. Insects or wind can transfer the pollen between plants, leading to hybrid seeds with unpredictable traits. If you would like to save seeds from cross-pollinated crops, keep different varieties far from each other.
Saving seeds from biennial plants can also pose challenges, but it is not impossible. Biennial plants require two growing seasons to set seeds. If you plant them this year, you cannot save seeds until the end of the next growing season.
Propagating
Two commonly grown vegetables that can be propagated through seed-saving are potatoes and garlic. Propagating potatoes and garlic is similar to seed saving in that both methods involve saving part of the plant for future planting. Just like seed saving, the goal of propagating these vegetables is to maintain the desirable traits of the parent plant and produce a healthy and productive crop in the next growing season. With proper care, potatoes, and garlic can be easily propagated and grown year after year, making them a cost-effective and sustainable way to produce your vegetables.
How to Save Seeds
Tomatoes: Wait until the fruits are fully ripe, then scoop out the seeds and gel surrounding them. Place the mixture in a small cup with some water and gently swirl it around once a day. Within 5-7 days, the viable seeds should sink to the bottom. Pour off the liquid, rinse the seeds, and dry them on paper towels.
Peppers: Allow a portion of the peppers to get passed the fully ripe stage on the plant until they begin to wrinkle. Remove the seeds from the pepper making sure they are clean. Discard any seeds that are discolored or damaged. Lay them out on a towel and allow them to dry for at least one week.
Peas and Beans: Let the pods ripen on the plant until they are dry, brown, and wrinkled. Dry the pods indoors for at least two weeks. After two weeks, shell the pods and discard any discolored or damaged seeds.
Potatoes: The first step in saving potatoes is curing. Do this by laying out in a cool dark environment with plenty of ventilation for 2 weeks until the skins begin to harden. Potatoes can then be stored in a cool dark location. I place them in paper grocery bags in the basement. Check on them frequently for signs of rot. They will begin to sprout by the time you are ready to plant in the spring!
Garlic: Garlic also needs to be cured but they prefer a dry, warm, well-ventilated area. Each individual garlic clove is planted as the “seed” for a head of garlic in the fall. See my post on Growing Garlic for more details!
How to Store
Proper storage is key to ensuring that your saved seeds remain viable for planting the next year. Make sure to label each container with the type of seed and the date they were collected.
For storage, you could make seed packets from paper, repurpose old seed packets or use envelopes. Glass jars may be suitable for larger seeds, but ensure they are kept away from direct sunlight. Optimal storage locations include cool, dry spaces like basements or refrigerators that shield them from moisture and extreme temperatures.
